Anyone else evolve beyond tubes?

I am leaning toward ss. I am currently sitting on the fence. Both my amp and preamp are hybrid. I want full range frequency repsonse, sufficient gain for mc, real bass and not have to deal with tubes.
Unfortunately both tubes and ss suffer form identity cirsis. SSwants to be tube like and vice versa. Rememberwhen Krell amps had balls?
Right now probably the all out design in tubes is the Atma-sphere. We all know they have impedance problems and tend to imitate space heaters. Probably the SS kings seems to be the DartZeel and ASR Emitter II.
When a tube lover like Harrry Pearson not only proclaims a solid state design the best but approaching the real thing that means that the tube designers need to get busy.
I for one am going to take a hard look at solid state. I was impressed by DartZeel driving the VR9SE at the show. A double Dart with matching preamp approaches $50KHMMM? I deserve it!

Yes, Andy has a lot of knowledge about amp technology, as well as RFI and grounding components which he helped me with. In some ways I felt he knew more about my amp than the manufacturer did. Andy certainly knew the right combnation of tubes for it based on his knowledge of the tube circuits. I've dealt with other tube dealers and for the most part have had good experiences, but Andy is the best.

I may just have to give him a ring to see if he'll be able to get me a stash for my phono preamp and DAC.

Most people never get to hear tube amps at their best-which is with simple efficient speakers-or used to run just mid and treble with SS on bass duties.
The problem is that most speakers are built to handle SS power and as a consequence don't suit tube amps with their low damping factors and power output.
If you seek out the emotional elements in music then valve amps are still the best,although SS amps with good electrostats and a tube preamp will deliver this convincingly.
The tube versus solid state debate is all about how people listen or hear differently,not the products.If you really want to complicate the debate you need to include chip amps which have a different sound again-[their vibrancy and clarity are more SET like but with more SS tonal qualities]

You sometimes incounter a problem using tube pre and and a SS power amp. Some (alot) of SS power amps have a low input impedence that is difficult for a tube pre to drive. If you have a ss amp with a 100K or 150K input impedance, no prob. On the other hand--most ss pre-amps can easly drive a tube power amp. Personally, I like tubes all around or a hybrd pre. It is really not fair to make general statements anyway and you should listed to each piece and decide----but the input/output impedance is very commonly overlooked and makes a big difference in matching of equipment.